"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Dragged a comb across my head

I thought it was time I let you all in on what a typical day in my life is like...

Yesterday I woke up at 6:45. SR had already left to take a train to Herlev. I took a lanzoprazole, ate a couple flødeboller, drank some coffee, and wrote a hurried email to a couple of Wisconsin friends who are visiting Denmark for the Copenhagen Marathon. I then walked by step-daughter's room and sang the song "Gotta get up! Gotta get up!" as I do every morning.

She wanted Nutella on toast for breakfast, as did the tired Heed, Lorax. Then I changed, washed the Lorax and we gathered everything we needed for the day. We headed down to the car by 7:30. Normally we would all bike, but in so much snow, I feel scared riding a bike with the child seat on the back. I know. I'm a wimp. But I've fallen a couple times with The Lorax on already.

They were safely off to school and dagpleje, when I realized I was running late. There was just too much traffic and Danes don't believe in salting roads, so everyone was driving much slower than usual. Scared, I parked illegally and ran out of the car in my huge black jacket and short sleaved white hospital garb. Oh, no, I had forgotten my white coat! Shit! My lens, my pens, my dictaphone...

I went into the morning meeting and all was normal for a few moments. I set out to move the illegally parked car and realized I had lost the car key. So I decided to run home in the white scrubs to get my white coat. Good thing I am the fastest female ophthalmologist in Næstved.

Thankfully, my first patient had cancelled. The rest of the morning consisted of examining patients to see if they were appropriate candidates for cataract surgery, taking various measurements of their eyes, testing their vision and examining their eyes.

At our lunchtime meeting, everyone tried to help me find my keys and I finally located them in the snow on the lawn in front of the hospital. I normally eat with a few colleagues, but they had an "overlæge" meeting, so I bought a tuna sandwich on rye bread and tried to fix an application for ph.d. money, which I had sent in the wrong form.

At the end of the day, I got the baby jogger and ran 2 miles though town as quickly as I could to pick up The Lorax. I almost took down an old couple and the wife yelled "Det må man ikke!". I got the Lorax and he enjoyed some string cheese on the way to get Step-daughter. He said "wow!" a number of times, as he always does, anytime he sees something new on the route. I then forced step-daughter into a running race home. We gathered food, diapers, a present for the hour drive to Copenhagen to meet SR, and his brother's family, who had just had a baby.

The baby, Ayla, was just perfect and adorable. SR had ordered personal pizzas for everyone but me. Good thing step-daughter was willing to share a slice as I was starving. I wasn't mad though, because SR had agreed to let me swim in the 50 meter pool in Gladsaxe while his parents watched the kids.

I had the most wonderful swim of 15 laps and did it so quickly that I had some extra time to do my new favorite stroke: swimming on my back holding a kickboard over my head. What a great ab workout!!

In the sauna I talked with one of the girls from the high school team who had been swimming next to me. Their coach had said to them that 50 meters in 38 seconds was too slow! Wow, that's booking it. I wish I would have learned to swim as a child.

So life was good and SR came to pick me up with the kids. He then got understandably mad about the fact that it was so late. I always lose track of time in the sauna. Then he got out of the car to drop off his bike at the Glostrup train station. Step-daughter then confided in me: "He's only angry because I did something wrong" (this was of course all in Danish). "What did you do?" I asked. "I got mad when Rebecca (her cousin) got a barbie doll and I didn't". Kids are so wonderful. I didn't care what she did. I loved her at that moment. The Lorax said "Papagøje" (parrot) as he sometimes says when he just needs something to say. The rest of the ride home was fun.

When we got home, I had to go send a document from the ph.d. office and then I accidentally locked my keys and SR's bike key in the office. It's not easy being married to Sea Legs Girl. But SR eventually found another key to the bike and went to bed, so he could get up early again for his now hour and a half (!) commute.

I tried to put The Lorax to bed, but he wanted his usual half an hour of playing piano, drawing and reading before bed. It was 11 pm, but who can blame him? So I stayed up with him, because I love that time, too.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.